Recently, Governor Cuomo signed Bill S. 6577/A. 8421 (the %u201CHarassment Statute%u201D) into law. The Harassment Statute will significantly expand potential liability for all New York employers for any form of unlawful harassment%u2014not just sexual harassment. If you are an employer in New York, it is strongly recommended that you thoroughly review the Harassment Statute in detail.
New York's competitive bidding statutes require contracts for public work to be awarded to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder. The statutes are designed to reject a contractor who is unqualified or whose bid is not responsive to the criteria in the request for bids. Although the law does not define "responsible", it has been interpreted as meaning that the low bidder has sufficient skill, experience, financial resources and integrity to perform the contract.
Contractors should be aware that the failure to define material terms in their construction contracts, such as the term "costs" in a change order provision, can lead to the admission of "parol evidence" (extrinsic evidence outside of the contract) to clarify the ambiguity
This series dates back about 14 years, and has always had OSHA compliance as a primary focus. While the OSH Act, soon to be fifty years old, has never quite reached its stated goal of providing all workers in America with workplaces free from health and safety hazards, it has achieved much in reducing on-the-job mayhem.
